#housemdoc

Full Name: Reina Linh Rivera

Identity: Cis female (she/her), lesbian, mixed Asian and Hispanic descent, 35 years old (birthday Feb. 13th)

Department: Head of Pulmonology at PPTH

Physical Appearance: 6’1” tall, straight, dark brown hair, slanted/monolid dark brown eyes, tanned skin

Personality: She can be brash and talk before thinking, but she is practiced at smooth-talking her way out of it. She likes pick-up lines and is just charismatic enough to pull them off. By first glance, most would question her competence as a department head, but when she gets into work mode they usually understand. She is very competitive and stands her ground, traits she assumed as a woman in the workplace from her previous jobs where she was less respected. Because of her relationship with her father and past romantic relationships, she is naturally more distant and snarky with men, and assumes a protective role over female friends and partners (even when it is wholly unnecessary.) She bottles up most emotions and refuses to appear vulnerable to almost everyone.

Backstory: She was born in the suburbs in North Carolina. Her dad wanted a son so he subconsciously urges her to be less feminine and more of a tomboy (she was naturally inclined that way anyway, but it still stirs up some resentment once she realizes what was actually happening during her childhood.) She was urged to be tough by her father and confident and on top by her mother. She grew up competitive and perfectionistic; an honor-roll student, a three-sport athlete, etc etc. (The three sports were rugby, basketball, and softball.) Her parents wanted her to be a lawyer, but she cajoled them into paying for medical school instead.

When she was still struggling with her sexuality in high school, she had a boyfriend that she was obsessed with. He cheated on her! In undergrad she had a girlfriend she loved very much. She cheated on her! Working through her masters, she had a girlfriend she thought she was going to marry. Guess what that girlfriend did. Cheated on her! Because of her rocky dating history, she is very romantically reserved and can only handle surface-level non-committal relationships; anything of a higher caliber causes her to turn tail because she’s been burned so many times.

Show Presence: She shows up around the time of the Chase-Cameron situation when Chase wants to go further but Cameron is not into it. Essentially, she swoops in like “I can give you something purely physical and I can do it way better than him ;)” so she essentially takes Chase’s place. But… oh no… maybe Cameron is kinda cute and she likes her for her personality……

She interacts with the ducklings more than House or Wilson, only if her specialty is needed in a case. She’s as you would expect with House: returns his snark and refuses to let him boss her around until she can be 100% convinced she’s wrong. By first impression, she can be cold with Wilson because of his reputation for cheating and whatnot, but she eventually warms up a bit as she sees the depth to him.

Fun facts:

Likes dad rock and punk rock

Still plays club rugby in her free time as a flyhalf

Has broken every single toe at least once doing sports, but never any other bone

No siblings but many cousins scattered throughout the US

Flipped a coin to decide whether she would specialize in pulmonology or cardiology

Speaking normally, she doesn’t have an accent, but her southern twang gets brought out by certain words or phrases